Behind Bengal BJP’s rout in civic polls: Inexperienced leadership, lack of a regional face, factionalism

In the recent civic elections — the first big polls in the state since last year’s Assembly election, when the BJP was completely outplayed by the ruling Trinamool Congress — the party failed to win any of the 108 municipalities in the state. The Trinamool won 102 of these civic bodies, the CPI(M) won one (Taherpur municipality in Nadia district) and the newly launched Hamro Party won Darjeeling. Four municipalities — Beldanga in Murshidabad district, Champdani in Hooghy district, Jhalda in Purulia district and Egra in East Midnapore district — threw up hung verdicts.

Of the total 2,171 wards in 108 municipalities, the BJP won only 63 compared to the Trinamool’s 1,870. The party’s vote share stood at 13 per cent, behind the Left’s 14 per cent. That’s a steep fall from its 40% vote share in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

At a Chintan Baithak (brainstorming session) held on Saturday, where the debacle in the civic polls came up for discussion, party leaders alleged that their workers were being terrorised by the Trinamool’s cadre and accused the police of being partisan — factors, which, they said, had led to the party losing organisational base in the districts.

Amit Malviya, the party’s state in-charge, national vice-president Dilip Ghosh and state president Sukanto Majumder were present at the meeting.

Some of the leaders present in the meeting also alleged a “secret understanding” between the BJP and TMC.

However, the party’s problems in Bengal run much deeper — as is evident in the results of the civic polls.

With its senior leaders busy with the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, the state unit of the party did not have the support of its central leadership for a test as big as this. Secondly, the party had to take the electoral plunge under the leadership of a relatively new state unit — it was less than six months ago that party MP Sukanta Majumdar replaced Dilip Ghosh as Bengal BJP chief.

The internal fight which ensued for months following the setting up of a new state committee also played its part in weakening the party.

In December last year, at least 10 BJP MLAs, including Union Minister Shantanu Thakur and a large number of district leaders, quit the party’s WhatsApp groups to protest against their exclusion from the new state committee. In retaliation, the new leadership led by Majumdar dissolved all the departments and cells of the party’s state unit.

Besides, setbacks in the bypolls late last year — the party failed to win any of the four seats with its candidates losing their deposit in three of those seats — and the long queue of those heading to the party’s exit door have added to the BJP’s woes.

Speaking to The Indian Express, BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh said, “There was some organisational weakness. Apart from that, a large number of our workers became inactive and could not campaign in the civic polls… they stopped attending party activities due to terror tactics by the TMC and state police. They are scared they will be slapped with false cases. Also, the central leadership got busy with elections in UP.”

Ghosh is hopeful that the party cadre will soon become active again. “We will try to identify areas which require urgent attention, where we fell short. Once the situation gets better, our party workers will become active again,” he added.

What has added to the BJP’s woes in the state is the lack of a prominent regional face to match Mamata Banerjee’s appeal. Sources in the BJP and party rebels say excessive dependence on central leaders meant that the party did not nurture regional leaders.

‘Temporarily suspended’ BJP leader Ritesh Tiwari says, “Those who knew the history and geography of Bengal were either benched or removed from the new state committee. Those who knew local-level politics were kept out of the party’s election team. In several areas, the party did not field local candidates and brought in candidates from outside. How will they understand problems faced by people here?”

Tiwari, the BJP’s former state secretary, was expelled from the party in January for speaking out against the new state leadership.

“Everyone knows that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not come to campaign for us in a local-level election. But it is also a fact that those who are running the state unit now are inexperienced. People hardly know their names. They lack the knowledge of conducting a local-level election,” added Tiwari, who has been at loggerheads with Majumdar, the new state-unit chief of the BJP, and state party general secretary (organisation) Amitava Chakravorty.

The next big test for the BJP will be the panchayat elections that are due next year, for which the party will have to put in a lot of work to galvanise the rank-and-file into action. With the Left getting its foot back in the door, the BJP now has the twin challenge of tackling both the Trinamool and the Left.

“It is clear from the people’s mandate that there is no alternative to the TMC in West Bengal. Election after election, people have been blessing Mamata Banerjee with their support for the work she has done for them. The BJP should first stop the internal fight and identify who their leader is. There are so many camps out there. First they should keep their house in order before taking us on. They have been totally rejected by the people for not working in the interest of the state,” said TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh.

BJP in West Bengal: dipping curve

2019 Lok Sabha Polls

Seats: 18 out of 42

Vote Share: 40.3 per cent

2021 Assembly polls

Seats: 77 out of 294

Vote Share: 38 per cent

Assembly bypolls

Seats: Zero

Vote share: 13.3%

Kolkata Municipal Corporation

Wards: 3 out of total 144

Vote share: 9%

Municipal corporations (total wards 226)

BJP: 12 out of 226

Vote share: 14.5%

108 municipalities

Won: Nil

Vote Share: 13%